1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a harness routing structure for a link for routing a wire harness for power feeding along a rotary type link from a harness protector in an automobile or the like.
2. Background Art
FIG. 5 shows one form of a conventional harness routing structure for a link (refer to patent document 1).
In this structure, a pair of links 41 and 42 are rotatably connected to each other, a proximal end portion of one link 41 is rotatably supported by a vehicle body 43 of an automobile by means of a shaft portion 44, a distal end portion of the other link 42 is supported freely by a slide door 45, and a wire harness 46 for power feeding is routed from the vehicle body 43 to the slide door 45 along the both links 41 and 42. The arrangement provided is such that, in conjunction with the opening and closing of the slide door 45, the one link 41 is made swingable in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle by using the shaft portion 44 as a fulcrum, while the other link 42 is made swingable with a greater angle than the one link 41 by using an intermediate shaft portion 47 as a fulcrum, to thereby follow the movement of the slide door 45.
The wire harness 46 is fixed to the links 41 and 42 by taping 48. A connector 49 at a leading end of the wire harness 46 is connected to the wire harness on the slide door side. A wire harness portion 50 led from a distal end of the other link 42 is extended and contracted in conjunction with the opening and closing of the slide door 45.
FIG. 6 shows one form of a conventional harness routing structure (refer to patent document 2).
In this structure, to effect feeding electric power to a rotary type side door 51 of an automobile, a harness protector 53 is provided in the door 51, and a wire harness 56 is bendably routed in the protector 53 from an elastic grommet 54 on a vehicle body 52 side by means of a slidable hard tube (guide member) 55 and is led out from the protector 53 into the door interior, to be thereby connected to an electrical device, an auxiliary machine, or the like
When the door 51 shown in FIG. 6 is opened, the hard tube 55 is drawn out from the protector 53, the wire harness 56 is extended along a front-side inner surface 57 of the protector 53. When the door 51 is closed, the hard tube 55 enters the protector interior, and the wire harness 56 is compressed along a rear-side inner surface 58 of the protector 53, as indicated by chain lines.
FIGS. 7A and 7B show another form of a related harness routing structure for a link.
In this structure, a link 2 is pivotally supported by a vertical supporting plate 1, a harness protector 61 is provided on the supporting plate 1, and a wire harness 6 is routed from the link 2 along the protector 61.
The wire harness 6 is fixed to the link by a band 15 or the like, is fixed to a lower end-side leading-out port 62 of the protector 61 by a band 16 or the like, and swings along an upper opening 63 of the protector 61 in conjunction with the rotation of the link 2. The link 2 rotates at a large angle of 180° or thereabouts. FIG. 7A shows the state before the rotation, and FIG. 7B shows the state after the rotation.    [Patent Document 1] JP-A-2001-260770 (FIG. 1)    [Patent Document 2] JP-A-2006-117054
However, with the above-described structure of FIG. 5, there has been concern that, in conjunction with the rotation of the links 41 and 42, the wire harness 46 becomes loose at the connecting portion 47 between the both links 41 and 42 and can possibly cause interference with other members. In addition, with the above-described structure of FIG. 6, there has been concern that the hard tube (guide member) 55, which is a separate member, is required for guiding the wire harness 56 into the protector 53, so that the structure becomes complex and results in higher cost.
In addition, with the above-described structure of FIGS. 7A and 7B, an excess length (slack) of the harness at least occurs within the scope of the dimensional tolerance of the wire harness 6. Additionally, a large excess length of the harness is likely to occur in the vicinity of the shaft portion of the link 2 in conjunction with the rotation of the link 2 at a large angle of 180° or thereabouts. Hence, there has been concern that the excess length portion of the harness interferes with the link 2 and the like and can possibly cause damage or generate abnormal noise.